Quite a lot of difference Luke, The CBT is 'compulsory BASIC training', most pass this on the first or second attempt-but it is NOT a test ! they will assess you and then train you in a car park-around cones etc, then if you seem capable you are taken out on the road-miked up-its 1 day-if you 'complete' the training to a 'standard' you are given the certificate, that will give you 2 years on an L plate, as your a car driver you will already have 'road sense' , it will be 2 years growing extra eyes, ears, a 7th sense, advanced intuition, telepathy, an uncanny nack for 'radar-ing' old geezers driving Rovers/Micras, women drivers, chavs, young women drivers, tyre biting dogs etc etc-the list goes on.
DA-Direct access-all of the above, at todays credit crunch busting prices, and the goal you'd be looking to acheive in 2 years time anyway-but not on a cruiser type like an XV IMHO, they're low, slow, more difficult to handle (especially on slow maneouvres like the dreaded U-turn), go for the bigger, heavier 500-600 test bike-yes I thought bigger bikes were harder to handle too-how wrong was I